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Tuesday, May 5, 2009

ENDLESS REVISIONS

Many people have tried to figure out the ending. The beginning though is even harder. The details can drive you mad. For example, was it a mistake for Aaron and Abe to tell Kara about their time travel? Could that have led Kara to call Mr. Granger? Did she wake up to find Aaron was gone? Did she look in the attic? Whatever became of the Aaron in the attic?

Ideas resurface in Primer, complicating matters. When Aaron talks about punching Platt, isn’t it possible that this is Aaron’s way of saying he has already done this? Of course, we have to give Abe a break in that he doesn’t know that Aaron has his own box. Later, Aaron tries to wrestle with himself. Or what about Abe suggesting that he could keep the machine safe in a closet. Then, later, he puts himself in the closet.

So as we look at the timeline, every perspective changes our views. Did Abe really stall Aaron by slowly gaining success with the small machine while working on the larger boxes? Or was Abe’s progress hampered by Abe(2)’s interference?

There is a lot of confusion surrounding the point when time travel begins in the film. It starts at a point in time when Abe has the fail-safe kick on. Three days later, Aaron finds it and gets in. Aaron does not hopscotch the two boxes to go back before the box’s creation. It is an interesting theory of time travel to explore but it is not part of the film.

When Aaron exits the fail-safe, he calls Abe. "Hey, tell me you’re hungry. Kara’s at her mom’s and I’m starving." The glitch Abe experiences, is the beginning of the timeline being rewritten. I like how Shane avoids answering this question. It doesn't have to happen this way. Some of the editing could have put things out of sequence. But, it seems that this is a bit like what the experience would be like.